KARACHI: The directorate general of private schools formed on Monday a five-member committee to implement the Sindh government notification issued to stop private schools from selling textbooks, notebooks, other stationery items and uniforms.

According to a notification issued by Prof Salman Raza, the director general of the directorate of inspection & registration of private institutions Sindh, on the complaints received from parents, a circular has been issued already to the principals of all private schools under the Private Educational Institutions (Regulation and Control) Ordinance 2001 and 2005.

Now an inspection committee comprising five members has been formed to ensure the implementation of the instructions given to the owners and principals of private schools.

The committee will visit the schools and check their records as per provisions of the circular and submit a report with recommendations to the registration authority for an action against the schools that do not implement the instructions issued by the directorate.

Mohammed Afzal, director of the directorate of inspection and registration of private institutions Sindh, will be the convener of the five-member committee while Abdul Sattar Memon, director of the regional directorate of inspection; Gulab Rai, deputy director of the directorate of inspection; Ghulam Shabbir Solangi, assistant director of the regional directorate of inspection and Akhlaq Ahmed, monitoring officer of the directorate of inspection, will be its members.

Earlier, the Directorate of Inspection and Registration of Private Institutions Sindh had issued an order that neither any school could publish its own notebooks, registers or journals nor they could force parents to buy them.

The order was to stop the arbitrariness of some school owners about which the students and their parents had complained.

According to the issued guidelines, no school should force parents or students to buy stationery published by them. However, stickers with the name and logo of a school may be allowed on books etc.

Similarly, no school can provide students or parents with uniforms, school bags and textbooks from the school or encourage them to buy such articles from any special shop.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2022